Tie-Dye

So here it is, my post about tie-dye!  I had honestly never been a fan of tie-dye until this summer.  It's just another one of those camp fads like friendship bracelets.  Speaking of which, I just received this picture from my friend Sam.  (He, David, and Sam are all in Switzerland right now and I am super jealous!)

These are David, Sandy, and Sam's wrists with the friendship bracelets I made them over six months ago.  It made me smile to see that they are still wearing them :)

Anyways, back to tie-dye... I decided to give it a try so I asked my friend Will if he would teach me.  The first style I attempted was the classic single spiral.

The top picture was the first one I did.  Will spun and tied the shirt for me, but I applied the dye.  The second shirt was the first one I did completely on my own.  I also did another shirt at the same time that I did the second spiral, but it was a bullseye pattern in the theme of the Argentine flag.  I made it for my sister as a Christmas present.  Here is a picture of her wearing the shirt in Argentina.

Here is another bullseye pattern that I made once I was back here in Utah.

After making this bullseye pattern I experimented with making a double spiral pattern on a pillow case and it turned out pretty good, so I made a double spiral shirt while I was teaching my little sister and friend.

My last tie-dye project was by far my most time consuming, but it turned out awesome.  While I was home over Thanksgiving break, I was bored and needed something to do.  I found a bag of scrap tee-shirt material, so I decided to make a tie-dye quilt.  I hand dyed every piece and tried out a lot of new techniques that I'd never done before.  Some of the new things I did were reverse tie-dye (using bleach on colored material), squares, multiple bullseyes, hearts, flowers, and stars (although my star ended up looking like a crown).  I then arranged the pieces, sewed them all together, added a fleece back, and tied fringes.

I would say that it turned out pretty darn awesome.  The thing I love most about tie-dye is making it.  You can really get creative and try new things, which is what I did with this quilt.  Things don't always turn out perfect, but you learn from your mistakes, and you just keep trying.  Demonstrations on how to do each tie-dye technique coming soon!  Oh and P.S. I now have a super cool button that takes you to my roommate Lauren's awesome blog so check it out! (button on right side of page)